Max CPU frequency

So I decided to try to push the 8 cores a bit and see how they'd perform. So I installed "stress" from the Ubuntu repositories, and ran it for 8 CPUs. top ramped up to 100% utilization on all 8 cores nicely, and the load averages popped up just like I'd hope. I let this run for about 30 minutes to see how things would pan out.

Out of curiosity, I checked the ACPI thermal zone, and it was hovering right around 68C

root@whiteboard:/# cat /sys/class/thermal/thermal_zone0/temp
68

So I killed the stress test, and it dropped down pretty quickly. But I also noticed that as the internal temp dropped, the max_freq increased. Even still, when it cooled down, the max was still 1.8GHz, which cpufreq-info said was a hardware limit (even though it was capable of 2.02GHz?)

So, long story short -- if you plan on really pushing this board, you'll need to add some extra cooling to the CPU, otherwise it'll dumb itself down on you.

we had a discussion on the quality of this crappy board. it is the stupid idea of powering via USB and not barrel connector for DC input. they have good CPU which throttles itself and expecting to push this board beyond what you have going you may as well just make it a doorstop LOL.

i find this $10 USD board only good for simple things. it was ok to learn from because so little works out of the box and you have to push your patience trying to get results plus you dont mind taking a hammer to it if it makes you mad.